Thursday, April 1, 2010

Door To Door Campaigning

I love being part of the election process, even though I can't myself vote.   I met someone else that couldn't vote yesterday - a felon!  It was weird how up front he was about it, just mentioned it matter of fact when asked why he'd say he couldn't vote - "I'm a convicted felon."  Oh.   I always expect convicted felons to have tears tattooed under their eyes.  That would be so convenient.   He didn't have any visible tattoos, but he looked fairly tough.  He also lives with his mom, and gave her a kiss as soon as he walked in the door, so he can't be all that bad.   I'm sure he's learned some crafts in the big house, I bet that he can make a candy dish out of an old license plate.  I should have suggested that he start a blog too, and I'd link to him from my blogroll.

Arrived at Union City First headquarters around 5pm, and it was packed.  People kept arriving until past 6pm.   Mayor Stack gave a rousing intro yesterday, then again handed it off to Chris Irizarry to translate.   We always laugh when that happens.  Mayor Stack will talk for ten minutes, then look at Chris as if to say "get all that?"  He always does though, and even thought I don't understand Spanish perfectly, I sense that he rarely misses any points.  Maybe he's installed a voice recorder app in his head, and he just presses play when it's needed.

I was out with Carolina yesterday, and we were able to get 7 posters up.  Since we're going to be starting a big poster push on Monday, I thought I'd start the documentation process.  I want to be ready to claim the title of "most posters plastered" or something.  


I also put the same poster up in my own window. I figure since I can't vote, I may as well shout out.

On a slightly separate note, I feel like I'm getting to know some of the people around here, and I actually see some familiar faces when I walk around the city.  I saw a few campaign volunteers at the Job Fair the other day, and saw a few others at mass last Sunday.    My new friend Oscar has been a big help in the "who's who" - he's lived in Union City all his life, and knows everyone.  I'm constantly asking him who people are and what their story is.   In fact, he's the one that clued me into the background on these two huge hulking guys that I thought had to be police detectives.  They stand up super straight, I thought that must have been a habit from years of wearing guns on holsters.   They are not police detectives.  I'm going to call one a baker, and the other a tailor. Just for fun.